It must not be forgotten that the advances of the Sicilian Moslems in the arts of peace were made under the most discouraging circumstances. War was the normal state of the country from the invasion by Asad-Ibn-Forat to the surrender of the last castle to the Normans. When the Saracens were not engaged in hostilities with the Christians, they amused themselves by cutting each other’s throats. In every instance, whether plundered by Greeks or persecuted by Moslems of an unfriendly sect, the husbandman and the merchant were always the sufferers. That agriculture and commerce could exist at all under such difficulties may well awaken surprise; that a civilization superior to that of any state of Christian Europe should have been developed and sustained in spite of these obstacles is an anomaly without precedent in the history of nations. The administration of the laws by the dominant race was, of course, based upon the principles of Moslem jurisprudence. It was not unusual, however, for these laws to be either evaded or executed with a severity never contemplated by their author. Constant familiarity with bloodshed and habitual defiance of their authority by the populace had brutalized the rulers of Sicily. They affected a reserve characteristic of the worst forms of Oriental despotism. Their features were unknown to the great body of their subjects. From motives of caution, or to enhance the mysterious dignity investing their office, they gave audience and dispensed justice from behind a curtain which entirely concealed the throne. Like the most degenerate of the Persian Fatimites, they travelled unseen in litters, attended by the effeminate ministers of their vices. The few who attained to military distinction by active operations in the field died of disease; a large proportion of those who intrusted the conduct of campaigns to subordinates perished by the hand of the assassin.